On April 5, 2019, nearly two weeks after allegedly raping colleague Brittany Higgins in the parliamentary office of his then-employer, defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, Bruce Lehrmann wrote Reynolds a grovelling letter of apology.

Not for the alleged sexual assault – which he continues to deny – but for a range of other misdemeanours he had committed in the preceding days, including mishandling of a classified document, unauthorised access to the ministerial suite (he’d falsely told security that he needed to return to the building to pick up documents for the minister) and for failing to comply with directions from Reynolds’ chief of staff about the manner of his exit from the job.

Bruce Lehrmann returns to the Federal Court during his defamation trial this week.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The letter, referred to in evidence this week during Lehrmann’s defamation proceedings against Network Ten and TV journalist and interviewer Lisa Wilkinson, contains several falsehoods, which he admitted under cross-examination.

But it’s his pitch towards the end of the email that strikes the oddest note, as the staffer sought to flatter and find common ground with the boss who was about to fire him (even though, as he told the court this week, he’d already decided to leave).

“You have been the sixth boss I have worked for in my time in Parliament and I maintain you have been the best,” he wrote. “Not only are you the first Minister I have worked for that actually takes a deep and abiding interest in the portfolio’s (sic) you hold but you genuinely care how you can make the nation a better place to live, its (sic) not just words. I only regret not picking your brains more and seeking your mentorship on how to be a staffer, as I know like me you also began at a very young age”.

Nearly five years on from that bitterly contested night in Parliament House, it’s salutary to recall how young the two key figures at the centre of this drama were at the time of Lehrmann’s alleged assault: he still only 23, Higgins a few months older.

They barely knew each other when they became colleagues in early March 2019. It was a time when there was a febrile atmosphere in Coalition ranks. Most staffers were expecting the Coalition to lose the approaching election, and a number of senior ministers were deserting Scott Morrison’s ship, with a knock-on effect among those who remained.

The abrupt departure of defence industry minister Steven Ciobo - for whom Higgins was then working - prompted Morrison to reach into the outer ministry and promote Reynolds, then assistant minister for home affairs, to take Ciobo’s place. Lehrmann came across with Reynolds.